Making an upgrade, Ryzen 1700x, i7 7700K, or Coffee Lake

memory

Member
I am looking into doing an upgrade. My current system is in my sig. I am wanting to get back into FPS gaming like BF1 and similar games and do general web browsing. My budget is $1500 max, of course the less I spend the better but without sacrificing performance if possible. OS, keyboard, mouse and monitor is not included in that price. I am currently running a 24" Asus @ 1920x1080 resolution, will keep that for now, but later on could decide to upgrade that.

I have been looking at either an Intel i7 7700k build or an AMD Ryzen 7 1700x build. Or even possibly waiting for coffee lake to be released. I normally don't do any major upgrades for 3 or more years. I would like for it to be future proof as much as possible.

I will post the parts I have picked out for both builds little bit later.

I am running an Intel 530 180gb SSD and windows 10. I can't seem to change my signature, says it is 8 lines too long, will change that later.

How do I make my newegg wishlist public? Each time I change it to public in the settings, it keeps going back to private. And can public wish list be posted in forums?
 
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Darren

Moderator
Staff member
From a completely sheer gaming perspective the 7700K will beat the 1700X by a small margin in terms of framerate, maybe 5 to 10 percent. That said since you're running at 1080p this is pretty much irrelevant as you won't notice those differences without a higher refresh rate or resolution. The 1700X will be arguably more future proof due to extra threads, a platform that is going to be around for a longer time than Z270, and give better all around performance for a longer period of time. Anything multithreaded past 8 threads the 1700X will stomp the 7700K. I'd go the 1700X route.

To be frank your budget is kind of overkill for your monitor. Might be something worth upgrading later down the line as you can max out anything at 1080p with the likes of a GTX 1070 or even an RX 580 or GTX 1060. Your budget probably has enough room for a 1080 build.
 

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
I'm super happy with my current 7700K build and it does all I need and more.

I do also have it overclocked to 5g, overclocked ddr4 ram, overclocked 1080TI, and an nvme SSD,., so its extemely fast and provides near flawless 4K res gaming.

It all depends on your needs, I primarily wanted a high end gaming rig that I could essentially play most titles on at 4K res...I've achieved that, so I'm satisfied - for sure.
 

memory

Member
Here is what I have for the amd build

COMBO CPU MOBO and RAM: https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3517028 562.97

RAM: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232217 177.99
Now I have listed this too as some have mentioned to get ram with the samsung b-die chip. They say Ryzen can be picky when it comes to the ram and the samsung b-die chips seems to be reliable.

CPU Cooler: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4UF53D6676 59.99
Newegg only has this one listed for the AM4 socket. Why is there not more options than that?

GPU: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487265 439.99

SSD: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226853 87.99
I am currently using a 180gb SSD and only have it about 1/4 full, mainly used for OS and some programs. I have a 500gb HDD that I will be using for storage.

PSU: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139200 64.99

CASE: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811854018 89.99
Wouldn't mind having a case with lights and all that stuff but not that important. Would rather have functionality over looks. Did not spend a ton of time looking at different cases.

If I use the combo deal, and not the g skill ram, total comes to 1305.92 plus the cost of shipping. Don't have to buy everything from newegg, just using that as a reference. I don't mind buying less expensive components but aslo don't want to sacrifice reliability or performance.

I also thought about reusing some of the parts in my current rig like the case, PSU and someone mentioned I could use the cooler if I went with a 7700k.

When I first started looking to upgrade, I was considering a prebuilt but not sure of the quality of the components they use. None I have looked at listed the brands of stuff like the mobo, ram and psu.

For the monitor, I may upgrade that in the future but not going to worry about that at the moment. I am kind of leaning towards the 1700x build over the 7700k but also wonder if it would be worth to wait for Coffee Lake to be released. I would like to build one pretty soon but can wait if needed.
 
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Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
Threadripper Threadripper
At what point do we be honest and say 'Is this actually necessary for a regular user/gamer?'

Both AMD and Intel have excellent offerings and kudos to AMD for finally, after all these years, bringing something special to the table... That being said, the 7700K is a great CPU, overclocks like a beast and while it is warmer than others, a good air cooler offsets that.

I considered AMD this build, but ultimately continued on with my tradition of using an Intel-based system. At the end of the day, both are excellent choices and will crush most games and tasks currently out.
 

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
I would imagine that would be well out of my price range and don't think I would need that much.
You could nearly build a full rig for the cost of just that CPU.. pointless..just like the new x299 intels.. overpriced for no reason except to front to your friends and people online.
 

memory

Member
I am still debating on whether going amd or intel. I know either way I go, I will have a system that performs really well especially compared to what I have now. At this moment, it seems I would get better performance from the 7700k since I will be doing mostly gaming even though the 1700x does really well compared to the 7700k in benchmarks. But that could change in the future when more games utilize more cores better, than the 1700x would be better. One thing I like about the 7700k is it can be overclocked higher. Not sure how much overclocking I will do with either one but I do like to keep my options open, not ruling it out. Not sure if I would need a better air cooler to get close to 5ghz and not sure I want to mess with water cooling. Never messed with that and not sure how much upkeep is involved with it and how much risk is involved. What happens if it springs a leak?

So far price wise, the parts I have picked out for the intel build is close to the amd build, about $80 higher. I am sure it can be tweaked as well. Will post intel build later.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
no reason except to front to your friends and people online
That's the fun part.

The 1900X wouldn't be a bad play for expandability but between the CPU and board is a good 750-800. Still a bit expensive for your target, however.

You could also roll the non-X ryzen (1700) to save a few bucks if you want to roll amd.
 

memory

Member
Looking at cpu coolers for the amd on newegg, why is there only one listed for the AM4 socket? Would it be possible to use my current Noctua NH-D14 for the 1700x? I do still have the stock i7 920 cooler I could stick on there if needed.
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
I think the 1700X is a more viable option, particularly since you mentioned longevity and your monitor situation as discussed. 1700X would also be slightly cheaper due to board availability and you could even snag a 1700 and overclock the difference in 5 minutes, thus giving you more to spend on your GPU.

Most major coolers have AM4 brackets from the manufacturer or already work with the socket. I just got an Enermax ETS T50 cooler that only said it was compatible with Intel sockets on Newegg (not even AM3) but it shipped with an AM4 bracket set already included. I'd ordered one from Enermax directly so now I have 2. :D
 

lucasbytegenius

Well-Known Member
I highly recommend the 1700 or 1700X route. Just ignore @Laquer Head's fanboyism, some of us like to save money and not pay into an anti-consumer stagnant blue processor company ;)

I use a 1700X in my build with a 1080ti.

We may see Coffee Lake by holiday season this year, but I highly doubt it. I also think it's going to be expensive because of low yields on the 10nm process.
 

Intel_man

VIP Member
Uh... probably before the end of the year. Coffee Lake is like another optimization step from Kaby Lake... which was an optimization of Skylake.


The 10nm process change is the Cannonlake and it seems like that's still next year... at the earliest.
 

memory

Member
Part of me wants to go with the 1700x and another part of me wants to go with the 7700k. I tend to overthink everything and maybe put a little too much thought into it lol. I know what ever I get will be a great system and much better than what I have now.

I thought about reusing my case, PSU and cpu cooler but being the system is 7+ years old now, not sure I would want to trust that PSU on the new build.

For this build I have selected a water cooler, the Corsair H60. Which would be better in terms of performance, the H60 or the Noctua NH-D14? This will be my first liquid cooled system.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dkfCRG

Any issues with this build like fitment issues? If I used the Noctua cooler, would ram clearance be an issue because of the ram being taller?

I will eventually need a secondary hard drive for storage, maybe get a 1tb which will be more than enough for me. Now in the past I have been a fan on WD drives. Are they still good drives or is there a better cheaper brand?

Do CPU's come with thermal paste? I am guessing no since they don't include a cooler. I have a couple of older tubes of thermal paste, noctua nt-h1, artic silver 5 and tuniq tx-1. I am guessing that the noctua paste would be the better choice given there is nothing wrong with the paste.
 
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